Spin control of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in a dense z-pinch

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:42938

Peterson, G G; Rostoker, N ^[1]; Tahsiri, H ^[2]

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1. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
2. California State Univ., Long Beach, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

Imploded, annular z-pinches are always subject to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, the growth of which is determined by the initial perturbations and the linear growth rate {gamma} = {radical}gk where g is the acceleration and k is the wave number. By imparting a spin to the plasma, the initial perturbations can be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the centripetal acceleration will reduce the growth rates at the end of the implosion. This idea could benefit pinch schemes that require uniform compressions, such as x-ray laser and fusion programs that are based on staged pinches and pinches with trapped magnetic fields. A summary of the spin concept is presented along with a zero-dimension implosion analysis for pinches with imparted spins and trapped magnetic fields.

• OSTI ID: 42938
• Report Number(s): CONF-940604--; ISBN 0-7803-2006-9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
IMPLOSIONS
INSTABILITY GROWTH RATES
LINEAR Z PINCH DEVICES
MAGNETIC COMPRESSION
PINCH EFFECT
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
X-RAY LASERS